Help me send wine to my friend.

May 25, 2006 8:03 PM

Wanting to send a nice bottle of wine to a friend as a "thank you" for letting me stay at his house. Problem #1 : He lives in Seattle and I live in NYC. Problem #2 : I know nothing about wine.

He's a big fan of red wines, particularly syrage. However, I'd like to give him something that he doesn't already have. I'm willing to spend up to $60 + whatever for shipping.

I'm looking for some reccomendations for the wine itself, as well as the optimal method of sending it to him. It would be great if there was some sort of service that sends wines to people, as that would save me some legwork.

posted by Afroblanco to food & drink (11 comments total)

K&L is a great shop and ships to WA. Give them a call. Ask for Syrah. I think they have two month clubs for a little more than that, even..
posted by kcm at 8:06 PM on May 25, 2006

Wine Library is also very good.
posted by occhiblu at 8:18 PM on May 25, 2006

Woot.com just opened up Wine.Woot.Com... might be able to get some good deals there.
posted by Ekim Neems at 8:20 PM on May 25, 2006

You could try going to Astor Wines and Spirits on 4th & Lafayette and seeing what they recommend. According to their site, they ship to Washington, and for $18.95 for up to six bottles.

There's also a Batali-Bastianich store right of Union Square called Italian Wine Merchants. They have consultants on hand to help you out with an Italian red that your friend would like but that might be different than anything he's had before. (I've only eaten at one Batali-Bastianich place, and a cheaper one at that, but my mother swore up and down that the wine she had there was possibly the best glass she'd ever had).

And I want to say there's another wine shop opening on 12th or 13th Street on 4th Ave? But I am not sure about that.
posted by anjamu at 9:37 PM on May 25, 2006

There's corkd.com. Brand-spanking-new wine appreciation site with Web 2.0 written all over it. Here are the wines tagged with "Syrah".
posted by freakystyley at 11:02 PM on May 25, 2006

Its easy to be dissapointed by a red wine, almost impossible with a decent champagne.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:13 AM on May 26, 2006

I recommend taking the time to go to a wine store and talking to read people vs. reading reviews and ordering online. If you somehow can get the names of some wines he particularly likes (or maybe even just a description of what he likes about a wine) then that will help you when you go to talk to someone.

But don't do that if you have to ask him because it would ruin the fun. You need a mole.

You could try a different tack and send him something that would nicely complement a red, say, rack of lamb.
posted by bleary at 6:28 AM on May 26, 2006

s/read people/real people

doh
posted by bleary at 6:29 AM on May 26, 2006

Like corkd, you could also try winelog.
posted by superfem at 7:05 AM on May 26, 2006

One of my internet friends out here in Seattle is a wine writer and works in a wine store. Email me and maybe I could hook you up, and even deliver it if your friend lives near me.
posted by matildaben at 8:41 AM on May 26, 2006

Thanks for the resources, all. I'll updated this thread and let everybody know how it turned out.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:52 PM on May 26, 2006